Anonymous vs India drama fit for Bollywood

Eric Mack |
June 13, 2011

Hackers that targeted Indian army vanish, been called out by other hackers claiming to be the "real Anonymous."

A group of Indian hackers identifying themselves as a wing of Anonymous went head-to-head with the Indian Army last week, then backed off -- but perhaps not soon enough. Today the group's Twitter and Facebook pages have mysteriously disappeared and they've been called out by other hackers claiming to be the "real Anonymous."

The upstart group, Operation India, attacked the Army's website on Friday, taking it down for about an hour, according to reports. In a "press release," the video copy of which has also since been removed from YouTube, the group claims the hack was done in support of an anti-corruption bill:

"We are here to send a Message to all the people who support the Anti-corruption bill. We took Down Indian Army Official Site and NIC knows more what we did. We do not support anyone, We Support Only The Anti-Corruption Bill. No one can speak for Anonymous, Nothing is Official. We are Not the "FLAME", We are just a "SPARK". Stop Your Brutal Violence and Blame games. Anonymous are the people."

However, it soon became apparent that many of the people didn't agree with what the group of hackers were doing, or even that they were under the amorphous umbrella of Anonymous. The Facebook and Twitter pages for Operation India became flooded with criticism of the Army hack, as the IDG News Service reported earlier.

"I won't support hacking the page of Indian Army. SAD," said one Facebook user. "Why indian army? what do they have to do with this? this is not Pakistan," said another user.

The group apparently then relented, claiming no damage was done to the Army site and announced it would only target corrupt politicians going forward.

But the mea culpa doesn't seem to have been enough. Much of the group's online presence, including its Twitter and Facebook pages, have disappeared as of Monday morning. A "Message to Self-Proclaimed Anon-India (#OpIndia)" showed up on Sunday, claiming to be from the "real Anonymous" and naming names of the alleged impostors behind the attack on the Army site:

"You targeted organizations and other Indian Government properties to settle your own issues and you used the name Anonymous for personal benefits... Anonymous would like to make it very clear that no private groups and the people representing these groups belongs to Anonymous nor Anonymous supports any of your activities."

It's not clear if the Operation India accounts were removed by the group itself or by Facebook and Twitter, but a message from YouTube states that the group's video press release was removed for violations. Of course, with all the lashings the group has taken from all sides, it's possible they just opted to hang up their black or grey hats and disappear into the night. PC World has attempted to contact Operation India, and will let you know if we hear back.